An over center toggle latch that fits into interlocking brackets, located on two halves of a compartment, is often used to lock the two halves of the compartment together while permitting the latch to be pulled completely free from the brackets to allow the compartment to open. One difficulty with an over center toggle arrangement is that any pull on the latch, in a direction away from the over centering, will release the latch. It was found that a directional release toggle latch will prevent release when a force is applied at an angle at or near perpendicular to the toggle latch while permitting release when force is applied at somewhat of an angle from perpendicular.